We plan on rolling out a variety of recruiting updates as the coaching search unfolds this week, but I wanted to create a thread and share my thoughts on a few recruiting topics.
Slippery Slope:
The decision to part with Kingsbury after six seasons came with expected consequences on the recruiting trail. At this moment, regardless of what they say to reporters or on social media, each and every 2019 commitment is free game.
Not that it could be avoided, but what makes matters worse about the timing is that the open contact period started again yesterday. This means college coaches were out on the road, visiting high schools and meeting commits/top targets for in-home visits.
Hocutt announced during his press conference yesterday that the assistants have agreed to stay on and help with the current players, maintain communication with the commitments and top targets. He also announced that they would be staying off the road, meaning no in home visits with commitments and top targets.
The better news? All of the official visits scheduled for this weekend were cancelled as well.
The initial reaction was "what is he thinking?" and "this is bad", but then you remember the last coaching search when Tuberville ghosted a recruiting dinner and fled to Cincinnati. His assistants were to stay around and help, but they were allowed to hit the road recruiting and ended up persuading a few of the existing Tech commits to follow them to Cincinnati.
So while it might hurt now, this does seem like the right move long term while Hocutt identifies the next head coach. Once in place, Hocutt mentioned that each current assistant would have the opportunity to interview with the new coach if the new hire is interested.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" -Wayne Gretzky -Michael Scott
Earlier today, the team posted a piece that looked at the Texas Tech support staff compared to conference rival Oklahoma State.
Comparing the situation at Tech to other programs in the conference only seems fair, and I'm going to follow that blueprint while looking at the amount of 2019 offers each Big 12 program has made to date.
-----------
Iowa State - 319
West Virginia - 226
Kansas - 180
Baylor - 179
Oklahoma - 152
Kansas State - 144
TCU - 142
Texas - 135
Texas Tech - 125
Oklahoma State - 96
----------
The Red Raiders come in ninth overall in conference when it comes to the total amount of offers out to 2019 prospects. The extreme example is Iowa State with over 300-plus offers and, for all of the additional resources we listed earlier, Oklahoma State actually offered the least amount of 2019 prospects in the conference.
So what does it mean? Well, I don't want to oversell this, it could mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.
However, I focus on both Oklahoma and Texas, two of the top programs in the conference and two programs that recruit nationally. These are national brands, blueblood programs, and even their coaching staffs are offering more prospects.
If we are led to believe that recruiting above average talent - the high three-star and four-star prospects - to Lubbock is indeed difficult, then wouldn't it stand to reason that the coaches would have to offer more prospects and cast a wider net?
A lot of these other programs are in rural areas and offer more prospects to increase their odds of landing what they need in each recruiting class.
If anything, offering additional prospects ensures the program has options and could create leverage for a coach looking to secure the commitment of a top target - "we have ___ amount of spots and ___ amount of offers out at your position."
A total of 10-20 more offers might not seem like a huge difference or a big number, but given this quick review, it would bring the Red Raiders closer to the conference average and away from the bottom of this list.
Posted on Twitter first:
Like it or not, social media and particularly Twitter has become an essential part of college football recruiting.
A school's head coach is the leader and spokesperson for the program, and social media provides a platform to reach thousands of fans and prospects.
After posting a thank you note to the Texas Tech fan base earlier today, Kliff Kingsbury posted his 7th tweet in nearly 11 months.
Keep in mind that two years ago the NCAA made it legal for all college coaches to retweet prospects' tweets, meaning the coaches can offer Maverick McIvor and then retweet or share his tweet announcing the new offer...make sense?
Well, Kliff never once took advantage of this new rule, not a single time. I get that maybe Twitter or social media wasn't necessarily his thing, but think about it from the prospect's standpoint. One coach does it and another doesn't, seems minuscule and unimportant, but it matters to 17-18 year old kids...it just does.
So let's look around the Big 12 conference, minus David Beaty who was fired and Bill Snyder who is 'grandfathered' out of the social media requirements.
Gary Patterson, TCU - 74 tweets in the month of November
Lincoln Riley, OU - 36 tweets in the month of November
Matt Rhule, BU - 33 tweets in the month of November
Mike Gundy, OkState - 16 tweets in the month of November
Dana Holgerson, WVU - 5 tweets in the month of November, all the same pregame video for the week and just under 40 total tweets for the year
Matt Campbell, ISU - 3 tweets in November
Tom Herman, UT - no tweets since August, but well over 100-plus for the year...something tells me a certain scandal up North and a former Big 10 assistant attacking him online has caused the absence
Every coach besides Holgerson uses Twitter frequently and averages 10-15 posts per month. When the average coach has 50-120k followers, each tweet reaches thousands of eyeballs and most of the time these tweets are used to market their respective programs or recruiting efforts.
Following prospects and communicating via private messages is certainly worthwhile, but any coach at any level can do that. For that matter, any recruiting analyst from Rivals can do that.
Kingsbury has 125k followers on social media and it seems like a massive mistake to not leverage that audience more than six times in 11 months before this morning.
Playing the game - Modern Recruiting:
Shortly after taking the head coaching position at Texas, Tom Herman hired away a valuable asset from Nick Saban and Alabama - Matt Lange, Director of Creative Media.
What is that and why should you care?
Well, we just stressed the importance of social media and Twitter within the college football recruiting world above. If being active on social media is required, then creating flashy edits for your commitments and top targets is now an expectation.
So important that the Texas Tech athletics department brought back Logan Hawk as the Assistant Director of Social Media this past year. Hawk graduated from Texas Tech and spent a year working at Texas A&M before returning to Lubbock in a full time capacity.
A homegrown talent, Hawk reports to Blake Zimmerman - the Director of Social Media who is in his second year as the program's director.
All of the credit in the world to Zimmerman, Hawk and their entire team for the impressive videos, photos and edits for each program over the past 1-2 years. They have seriously done some impressive work for every sports program.
But social media did not start 1-2 years ago and although the content is vastly improved, the Red Raiders were still behind the curve when it came to the importance of social media.
I have direct knowledge from former assistants and staff within the program that the football team was outsourcing recruiting edits to independent graphic designers, often an outside consultant paid per edit.
Nothing wrong with that per say, but it limits creativity and from what I understand the staff was limited in how often or how many edits could be obtained.
Texas Tech is a technical university and there are creative undergraduate students on campus in both the art and mass communication departments...so why not start with some free labor, utilize the resources at your disposal?
I have two friends from college who graduated from Texas Tech and work as professional graphic designers, marketing professionals. The students and talent exist in Lubbock, just have to find them.
Back to Lange, the Director of Creative Media for Texas...he routinely seeks help from the student body in Austin, asking for Photoshop experience and a sample portfolio of work.
Whoever Hocutt brings in as the new head coach needs to stress this as a 'must have' and intricate part of the recruiting process when pursuing the program's top targets.
Here are some quick examples of current edits used by the Texas Tech football program for some of the 2019 commitments...
It really doesn't matter the size of the program either, even school like Texas State are producing creative content to help boost recruiting results.
Here are some of the more creative edits that programs have used...
So super creative or not, these edits are an essential part of recruiting these days and the key is consistency for the entire coaching staff...not once in a while, but weekly or biweekly for every commitment and top target.
This is modern recruiting and the new head coach will need to lead the effort from the top down.
Slippery Slope:
The decision to part with Kingsbury after six seasons came with expected consequences on the recruiting trail. At this moment, regardless of what they say to reporters or on social media, each and every 2019 commitment is free game.
Not that it could be avoided, but what makes matters worse about the timing is that the open contact period started again yesterday. This means college coaches were out on the road, visiting high schools and meeting commits/top targets for in-home visits.
Hocutt announced during his press conference yesterday that the assistants have agreed to stay on and help with the current players, maintain communication with the commitments and top targets. He also announced that they would be staying off the road, meaning no in home visits with commitments and top targets.
The better news? All of the official visits scheduled for this weekend were cancelled as well.
The initial reaction was "what is he thinking?" and "this is bad", but then you remember the last coaching search when Tuberville ghosted a recruiting dinner and fled to Cincinnati. His assistants were to stay around and help, but they were allowed to hit the road recruiting and ended up persuading a few of the existing Tech commits to follow them to Cincinnati.
So while it might hurt now, this does seem like the right move long term while Hocutt identifies the next head coach. Once in place, Hocutt mentioned that each current assistant would have the opportunity to interview with the new coach if the new hire is interested.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" -Wayne Gretzky -Michael Scott
Earlier today, the team posted a piece that looked at the Texas Tech support staff compared to conference rival Oklahoma State.
Comparing the situation at Tech to other programs in the conference only seems fair, and I'm going to follow that blueprint while looking at the amount of 2019 offers each Big 12 program has made to date.
-----------
Iowa State - 319
West Virginia - 226
Kansas - 180
Baylor - 179
Oklahoma - 152
Kansas State - 144
TCU - 142
Texas - 135
Texas Tech - 125
Oklahoma State - 96
----------
The Red Raiders come in ninth overall in conference when it comes to the total amount of offers out to 2019 prospects. The extreme example is Iowa State with over 300-plus offers and, for all of the additional resources we listed earlier, Oklahoma State actually offered the least amount of 2019 prospects in the conference.
So what does it mean? Well, I don't want to oversell this, it could mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.
However, I focus on both Oklahoma and Texas, two of the top programs in the conference and two programs that recruit nationally. These are national brands, blueblood programs, and even their coaching staffs are offering more prospects.
If we are led to believe that recruiting above average talent - the high three-star and four-star prospects - to Lubbock is indeed difficult, then wouldn't it stand to reason that the coaches would have to offer more prospects and cast a wider net?
A lot of these other programs are in rural areas and offer more prospects to increase their odds of landing what they need in each recruiting class.
If anything, offering additional prospects ensures the program has options and could create leverage for a coach looking to secure the commitment of a top target - "we have ___ amount of spots and ___ amount of offers out at your position."
A total of 10-20 more offers might not seem like a huge difference or a big number, but given this quick review, it would bring the Red Raiders closer to the conference average and away from the bottom of this list.
Posted on Twitter first:
Like it or not, social media and particularly Twitter has become an essential part of college football recruiting.
A school's head coach is the leader and spokesperson for the program, and social media provides a platform to reach thousands of fans and prospects.
After posting a thank you note to the Texas Tech fan base earlier today, Kliff Kingsbury posted his 7th tweet in nearly 11 months.
Keep in mind that two years ago the NCAA made it legal for all college coaches to retweet prospects' tweets, meaning the coaches can offer Maverick McIvor and then retweet or share his tweet announcing the new offer...make sense?
Well, Kliff never once took advantage of this new rule, not a single time. I get that maybe Twitter or social media wasn't necessarily his thing, but think about it from the prospect's standpoint. One coach does it and another doesn't, seems minuscule and unimportant, but it matters to 17-18 year old kids...it just does.
So let's look around the Big 12 conference, minus David Beaty who was fired and Bill Snyder who is 'grandfathered' out of the social media requirements.
Gary Patterson, TCU - 74 tweets in the month of November
Lincoln Riley, OU - 36 tweets in the month of November
Matt Rhule, BU - 33 tweets in the month of November
Mike Gundy, OkState - 16 tweets in the month of November
Dana Holgerson, WVU - 5 tweets in the month of November, all the same pregame video for the week and just under 40 total tweets for the year
Matt Campbell, ISU - 3 tweets in November
Tom Herman, UT - no tweets since August, but well over 100-plus for the year...something tells me a certain scandal up North and a former Big 10 assistant attacking him online has caused the absence
Every coach besides Holgerson uses Twitter frequently and averages 10-15 posts per month. When the average coach has 50-120k followers, each tweet reaches thousands of eyeballs and most of the time these tweets are used to market their respective programs or recruiting efforts.
Following prospects and communicating via private messages is certainly worthwhile, but any coach at any level can do that. For that matter, any recruiting analyst from Rivals can do that.
Kingsbury has 125k followers on social media and it seems like a massive mistake to not leverage that audience more than six times in 11 months before this morning.
Playing the game - Modern Recruiting:
Shortly after taking the head coaching position at Texas, Tom Herman hired away a valuable asset from Nick Saban and Alabama - Matt Lange, Director of Creative Media.
What is that and why should you care?
Well, we just stressed the importance of social media and Twitter within the college football recruiting world above. If being active on social media is required, then creating flashy edits for your commitments and top targets is now an expectation.
So important that the Texas Tech athletics department brought back Logan Hawk as the Assistant Director of Social Media this past year. Hawk graduated from Texas Tech and spent a year working at Texas A&M before returning to Lubbock in a full time capacity.
A homegrown talent, Hawk reports to Blake Zimmerman - the Director of Social Media who is in his second year as the program's director.
All of the credit in the world to Zimmerman, Hawk and their entire team for the impressive videos, photos and edits for each program over the past 1-2 years. They have seriously done some impressive work for every sports program.
But social media did not start 1-2 years ago and although the content is vastly improved, the Red Raiders were still behind the curve when it came to the importance of social media.
I have direct knowledge from former assistants and staff within the program that the football team was outsourcing recruiting edits to independent graphic designers, often an outside consultant paid per edit.
Nothing wrong with that per say, but it limits creativity and from what I understand the staff was limited in how often or how many edits could be obtained.
Texas Tech is a technical university and there are creative undergraduate students on campus in both the art and mass communication departments...so why not start with some free labor, utilize the resources at your disposal?
I have two friends from college who graduated from Texas Tech and work as professional graphic designers, marketing professionals. The students and talent exist in Lubbock, just have to find them.
Back to Lange, the Director of Creative Media for Texas...he routinely seeks help from the student body in Austin, asking for Photoshop experience and a sample portfolio of work.
Whoever Hocutt brings in as the new head coach needs to stress this as a 'must have' and intricate part of the recruiting process when pursuing the program's top targets.
Here are some quick examples of current edits used by the Texas Tech football program for some of the 2019 commitments...
It really doesn't matter the size of the program either, even school like Texas State are producing creative content to help boost recruiting results.
Here are some of the more creative edits that programs have used...
So super creative or not, these edits are an essential part of recruiting these days and the key is consistency for the entire coaching staff...not once in a while, but weekly or biweekly for every commitment and top target.
This is modern recruiting and the new head coach will need to lead the effort from the top down.
